Oh this is and always will be a sentimental city for me, my first in France really spent time in it. I am thrill to tell you it is my dear city of Meaux and a place never missed when around the area of Seine et Marne dept 77 of the Île de France region of my belle France. I have written several posts , but this are new pictures from this week trip. Always in my mind wherever I will be in our world !!! Therefore, let me tell you again about the Jardin Bossuet of Meaux !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
This one is particularly personal and sentimental as it was here that my dear late wife Martine and I gave our first kiss, romantically in front of the fountain !! (see pic below and post) memories forever !!! The Bossuet Garden is a classic French formal garden whose boxwood borders form the shape of a bishop’s mitre. Admirable in every season, the garden offers a peaceful setting for its visitors. Abundantly flowering in spring and summer, it is home to the Bossuet rose, created to commemorate the tercentenary of the death of the eponymous bishop.
Designed in the 17C according to local tradition by the gardener André Le Nôtre, the Bossuet garden evokes the shape of a bishop’s miter, admirable from the first floor of the episcopal palace which today houses the Bossuet museum.(see post), Certain canonical houses will be transformed into portions of gardens for this purpose. Restored in 1911, the garden passed from the private domain to the public domain; it then took its current name and became the Bossuet garden. Today, this 8,500 m2 garden (including the rampart garden) designed in the French style includes 3 parts: the classical style flowerbeds, the ramparts and finally the panorama seen from the ramparts over the surrounding countryside. Certainly , we can say that this garden illustrates the link between past and present since the 300-year-old yews where Jacques Bénigne Bossuet loved to walk rub shoulders with the “Bossuet Aigle de Meaux” rose bushes, a species created in 2004 on the occasion of the tercentenary of the death of the emblematic bishop of the city. Created in the traditional French formal style. Its parterre, bordered by boxwood and surrounded by a double row of linden trees, now centuries old, has a geometric shape reminiscent of a bishop’s mitre. Some contemporary adaptations have transformed the austerity of the original French formal garden: a romantic-style rock now occupies the center of the circular basin, which was originally undecorated; Finally, magnificent rose bushes line both sides of the central path.
The vegetable garden of the bishopric, In the past, the word “vegetable garden” designated the pot, then the place where the soup is heated. It was not until the end of the 16C that it took on its current meaning and designated the place where vegetables were grown. The Bossuet garden benefits from a very good microclimate, favorable to plantings, especially in the North-East part. Bishop Dominique Séguier in the 17C had a greenhouse orangery built where “delicate plants” such as oleander, myrtle, jasmine, pomegranate and orange trees grew. During the French revolution of 1789, the garden became national property. It then serves as a simple vegetable garden and we mainly sow carrots and leeks there. The dimensions are 8,500 m2 Length, 90 linear meters (excluding rampart) , and width of 75 linear meters (excluding walls), They have planted Boxwood for 950 linear meters, Yew 50 linear meters, 77 lime trees (in 2 rows) make up the exterior path and 17,500 flowering plants.
At the far end of the garden, a staircase leads to a terrace which is none other than the upper part of the Gallo-Roman rampart. Bishop Dominique Séguier, by extending the garden onto these ramparts, gifted Meaux with a remarkable site. His successor, Dominique de Ligny, had a pavilion built around 1670 which, according to tradition, was the study of the “Eagle of Meaux.” But preferring to work at night, the famous prelate undoubtedly wrote in his more comfortable library. However, he must certainly have retreated there often to meditate and prepare his famous sermons. This hermitage, along with its small formal garden, extends into a magnificent avenue of century-old yew trees some sixty meters long. The Bossuet-Aigle de Meaux Rose idea for creating a Bossuet rose arose from the convergence of two events: the city of Meaux’s desire for a national commemoration of the tercentenary of Bossuet’s death in April 2004, and the existence of the plant fairs at the Courson estate. It is a hybrid tea rose, mauve, with glossy, hardy foliage, fragrant, and repeat-flowering. It has been planted in the gardens of the Bishopric of Meaux since 2004.
The City of Meaux on the Bossuet garden : https://www.ville-meaux.fr/ma-ville-et-actualites/tourisme/balade-a-meaux/le-jardin-bossuet
The local Meaux Marne Ourcq tourist office on the Bossuet garden : https://www.meaux-marne-ourcq.com/jardin-bossuet/
There you go folks, always memorable moments that stayed with you no matter what, time does not diminished the sadness of not having my dear late wife Martine who introduce me to this historical city, Meaux. Also,a great inexpensive alternative to Disneyland only about 20 minutes away by car. Do see my other posts on Meaux. I will always remember Meaux, Again, hope you enjoy this post on the Jardin Bossuet of Meaux !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, andn many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 